HONG KONG: The merger of Orient Overseas (International) Limited and COSCO Shipping Holdings offers ‘tremendous opportunities’ for both businesses, especially when it comes to combining strengths in the duo’s liner sectors, outgoing Chairman of OOIL, C C Tung, said commenting on the deal.
COSCO and Shanghai International Port (Group) concluded the acquisition of OOIL’s shares on July 13, 2018.
“Together with greater scale and with increased financial resources, we will be able to combine the complementary strengths of our two liner businesses and COSCO’s terminal business, and thereby to create an industry leader, providing the widest of networks and the best of service to our customers, using ambitious growth targets and meaningful synergy benefits to create value for our shareholders, enhancing our business through information technology, and offering challenging and exciting careers to our employees,” Tung said.
As explained, the two companies plan to achieve this target while keeping the separate listing, branding, management and staff of the OOIL Group.
“As a famous international financial center, trade center and shipping center, Hong Kong provides a superior trade environment coupled with supportive policies, sound legal system and robust offshore financial system, which facilitate the global expansion of outstanding enterprises. I am fully confident that Hong Kong will make further achievements in establishing itself as an International Shipping Center and creating new opportunities for enterprises in the shipping industry,” incoming Chairman of OOIL, Captain Xu Lirong commented.
Speaking about the half year results of OOIL, Mr. Tung said, “The strong cargo volume growth seen in most East-West trade lanes, especially on Transpacific routes, is encouraging, not least because it is a trend that has now been sustained for over a year. While it is true that global economies still appear reasonably robust, not least the USA, the uncertainty caused by the threat of looming so-called trade wars justifies a degree of caution. It may well be that the impact on containerised transport will be less than some fear, on the grounds that goods transported in containers often tend to be higher volume but lower value. However, it would be naïve to be too confident in offering any predictions about how the currently imminent trade wars will impact the industry. Restrictions on trade are clearly not a positive factor: we will need to wait to gauge what their negative influence might be.”
